In Sri Lanka (Ceylon), there is a powerful cone-shaped mountain revered by adherents of all four world religions. The reason for this veneration lies in the footprint in the rock, which is located at the very top.
According to various legends, the whole island, and especially this mountain, is located "closest to paradise." Perhaps it is about the place where man was created?
Mount Adam, with a height of 2240 meters, is one of the highest mountain peaks in Sri Lanka. In the dry season, thousands of pilgrims go up here every day: Buddhists, Hindus, Muslims and Christians - and for some time now, just tourists. Since climbing under the scorching rays of the sun is too difficult an ordeal, excursions to Adam's Peak are made at night. The shortest route involves an ascent of 1 km and overcoming 5 thousand steps.
Before ascending the summit after four hours of a difficult journey, it is recommended to drink hot tea: an icy wind is raging here, and the temperature at night can drop to negative values. When you finally reach the upper plateau, you find that the small temple is already full of people gathered here before dawn.
From minute to minute a truly fantastic performance awaits you: when the first rays cut through the twilight sky, and a ball of fire begins to rise from behind the foggy ocean waters, and at this moment the crowd of believers greets him with exclamations of "Sadhu, sadhu!" ("Holy, holy!").
In the west, opposite the sun, a grandiose spectacle also unfolds - the cone-shaped shadow of Adam's Peak begins to slowly move apart along the valley below.
Promotional video:
But the main goal of the pilgrims is a depression in the rock 160 cm long and 75 cm wide, shaped like a footprint. Unfortunately, not everyone will be able to see it, because the plate with the imprint, revered as a sanctuary, is usually covered with scarves, strewn with flowers, and a small temple rises above it.
Pilgrims pass in a line, muttering mantras in an undertone. They kneel down, kiss a stone, and throw flowers into a hole covered in handkerchiefs.
Hindus believe that the imprint belongs to their god Shiva, who once stopped in these places, and they call the mountain "Shiva-Nadi-Padan". Buddhists call it "Sri Pada" - "Sacred Footprint". According to legend, Buddha visited this mountain in 500 BC. The first Buddhist temple was built here around 300 BC.
Christians and Muslims associate this shrine with the fact that when Adam, expelled from paradise, descended to Earth, he set foot on the top of the mountain. So the people of Sri Lanka consider their homeland the closest land to paradise, not only because of the magnificent nature.
For Christian Catholics - owing to Portuguese colonial rule in Ceylon in the middle of the 17th century - the imprint has a different meaning. According to them, he was abandoned by the apostle Thomas, who climbed the mountain during his missionary work in South Asia.
Pilgrims first appeared here in the 11th century. Marco Polo believed that Adam's tomb was on the top of the mountain.
Many ancient legends of various religions are associated with the depression in the slab. What is its true origin? Maybe it has a natural character and is it just a "whim of nature"? Or the work of a forger? Is it really a human footprint of this size! In what impenetrable antiquity the Earth was inhabited by ten-meter giants?
There is an opinion that the footprint on Adam's Peak is just a copy, while the original - in marble - is supposedly in a different place. This legend has a parallel - the legend about the imprint of the horse of Mohammed on a rock in Jerusalem, from where the prophet ascended to heaven.
What is the truth in these legends, religious traditions, interpretations and assumptions? What secret hides Adam's Peak, where, according to the beliefs of the inhabitants of Sri Lanka, the foot of the first man on planet Earth set foot?
Unfortunately, scientific research on the sacred mountain was not carried out. So - alas! - Today we have to be content with speculative reasoning and guesses.
